“And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said vnto me, Nay, but a King shall reigne ouer vs, when the Lord your God was your King.”
1611 King James Version (KJV)
12:12 Your king - That is, when God was your immediate king and governor, who was both able and willing to deliver you, if you had cried to him, whereof you and your ancestors have had plentiful experience; so that you did not at all need any other king; and your desire of another, was a manifest reproach against God.